Posted on 02/19/2012 12:59:50 PM PST by SmithL
Legislation introduced into Congress this week threatens to scuttle a deal to end a quarter-century exclusion of sea otters from Southern California waters.
Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, says HR 4043, the Military Readiness and Southern Sea Otter Conservation Act, aims to ensure the Navy can continue testing weapons on a remote Channel Island and to protect endangered abalone and the commercial shellfish industry.
The move has angered sea otter advocates, who want to see the federally designated threatened marine mammal recover throughout its historic range, from Oregon to Baja, Mexico.
The bill should be called "S.O.S., Sacrifice Otters for Shellfish," said Steve Shimek, executive director of The Otter Project in Monterey.
The Otter Project and the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center took the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to court in 2009 to end what is known as the translocation program. The Fish and Wildlife program, launched in 1987, sought to establish a backup population at San Nicolas Island in case of a natural or human-caused catastrophe, such as an oil spill. In a compromise designed to alleviate concerns of opponents, the federal agency also designated a "no-otter zone" south of Point Conception in Santa Barbara County.
But the program is largely considered a failure, and federal wildlife officials settled with plaintiffs in 2010 with the understanding that the best route to recovery is to allow sea otters to expand into their natural range.
Environmental review of the plan to eliminate the no-otter zone is well under way, with a final decision scheduled for release in December.
Gallegly's bill would exempt the Navy, which conducts weapons testing on San Nicolas Island, from provisions protecting otters under the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act and requires the Fish and Wildlife plan to ensure current levels of shellfish harvests.
(Excerpt) Read more at contracostatimes.com ...
The sharks find sea otters tasty, or a way of getting rid of extra teeth.
Yeah, my neighbors nephew is graduating from sea otter advocating school this spring.
He's told there is an abundance of opportunity for it in Oklahoma and that it pays well.
Well Duh!!
One thing not really apparent is that Sea Otters effect the well being of coastal sea weed(Kelp)... They eat the Urchins (and other things) that feed on the “Kelp”... and with the Kelp comes thousands of other sea life.. The Kelp is an environ-zone.. for fish and other creatures..
The otters may not be endangered but they are critical to a well balanced environ-zone.. NO Otters and the coastal environment suffers greatly.. Not only that but they are “cute”.. and much larger than many would expect..
I think otters ought to be limited to the Big Sur Coast on northy, and allow hunting of them anywhere south of that. Sea otter pelts must be incredible; I've felt live sea otter fur so dense that dig as hard as you could, you never found skin at the root. For warmth, that fur must be the best in the world.
They be sea-goin' rats, matey.
Same thing with the Pismo Clams.
Refer your tagline.
Humans are part of the balance. We're as much a force of nature as the otters or any other critter. We have as much a right to be here as they do. Always have, and ALWAYS WILL.
Personally, I think the otters were transplanted from Alaska. How could some remnant population of them have survived without notice by ANYONE for 70 or so years, before they were miraculously "discovered" on the Big Sur Coast? Nobody see a single one of them for 70 years? What an utter bullshit story.
It didn't take them long to extend their range from there, either. The whole thing is a set-up. First they called it the 'California sea otter", then, after it was found they were genetically not dissimilar enough from their Northern cousins to justify imagining them as being much different, they started calling them the "Southern sea otter". Even if they were wiped totally out, Northern otters could be transferred with little or NO loss of genetic diversity, so why this panic about some future oil spill wiping them all out? They are spread far enough, from Sur to Conception to preserve enough of them, even without needing to rely upon back-up from their Northern cousins (from which they most likely were stealthily re-introduced into California in the first place).
Years ago there was a controversy concerning the DNA, and it's similarity with the Alaskan sea otter population. The Cal Poly professor who broke the news back-tracked, claiming he was misunderstood, etc. Yeah, ri-ight. More like he was pressured by the nature worshipers whom control academia, his job prospects, his retirement pension. No one wanted the real story to get out, for there was BIG MONEY (taxpayer's money!) in "studying" and "protecting" them. Being an endangered species, they could be used to get rid of fishermen too.
And now the State reneges on the deal they made years ago to keep otters North of Conception. They've been trying to break that deal, and have been cheating it all along. Rarely if ever have otters been caught South of Conception then relocated North as they promised.
I can't remember the details now, but about 25 yrs ago, the State and NMFS-NOAA lost 80 or more otters (to death and disappearance), in a failed effort introducing them to the Channel Islands.
(They had some relocated Condors die trying to fly back to the mainland too, but that's another story...)
The Otters have the entire Coast North of Conception they can live upon, without their chief natural predator hunting them, which was Man. Nothing has kept the population in check, so they do wipe out totally all the abalone, and all the urchins wherever they go. This has been proven, with otters along the Big Sur Coast observed eating starfish (not a preferred food source at all) due to them having eaten all the shellfish and urchins they could get their grubby little paws on.
San Nicholas should be a sanctuary for the type of things the otters eat --- NOT the other way around.
Not to be picky, but that’s a river otter.
Hey, I’m lucky it’s not a desert otter! :)
Sounds like nature is the sea otter's greatest enemy.
... until, as you say, the otters were covertly re-introduced to the coast. If I was a gambler, I'd definitely bet you've got that call exactly right.
It's discouraging to see how many good folks fall for the reasonable-sounding environmentalist propaganda that has been honed now for two generations -- like the idea that not having otters around would mean the end of kelp beds. Gosh ... I guess the experts forgot to tell all the kelp beds that back in the '60s and '70s that I saw with my own eyes, and even dove near and within few times.
Remember the story about the pier fisherman in Newport Beach who got arrested for killing a sea lion with a steak knife?
Do you know that out of a dozen or two FReepers who responded to a thread on the story posted here some years ago, there were only two who even raised an eyebrow at the storie's veracity!!! LOLOLOL!!! {^) Most folks, apparently, think you could kill a sea lion with a steak knife!!! {^))
That's a humorous example, though, of how ignorance makes folks gullible. Can happen to anyone, it's no crime.
The shellfish donate to, and vote for, the Democrats. If the Otters start ponying up some cash to the Democrats they’ll get everything they want. The Democrats will put them on welfare and hire thousands of Democrats to take care of them.
Seals are the preffered shark snack (I thought Red Wings were also on the menu but that didn’t seem to happen today).
When sea kayaking on Monterey Bay its hard not to run into otters, at least it was in early 90’s.
“The move has angered sea otter advocates, who want to see the federally designated threatened marine mammal recover throughout its historic range, from Oregon to Baja, Mexico.”
They’ll change their tune right quick when the People’s Liberation Army comes marching across California, AKs leveled and firing. By then, of course, it’ll be too late.
But, hey, at least the otters’ll be happy.
[ I think you’ve been bamboozled! I grew up in an area of a thriving abalone and urchin industry on a coast that was always rich and thick with dreamy kelp beds ...]
I think you’re WRONG.. about other things as well..
I was raised in Southern Mexifornia.. and have seen how the Kelp was then and how it is NOW.. I have fished the coastal waters there extensively.. The Kelp is much much thicker now.. Southern Mexifornia has two things much more in abundance now.. 1. Kelp and 2. Mexicans..
The Kelp is a good thing.. the Beaners are not..
Southern California doesn’t have anything near a full complement of sea otters returned as of yet. Not even close. How is it that you’re seeing such a renewal of kelp?
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